We woke up quite early in the morning and the city of Puerto Madryn was yawning by the shores of the Golfo Nuevo. The sun light up the while we were watching this breathtaking scene in complete silence and behind our warm cups of coffee.

Bravely, we left the hotel to face up the cold windy morning. Andrés, our tour guide, told us how his Welsh ancestors had arrived during a similar morning in the peninsula more than one hundred years ago. They were trying to get their dream of making their nation in the Patagonia.

Once on the van, while we were crossing the Patagonian steppe, the “mates” (the typical Argentinean hot drink) came into scene and the conversation turned friendlier. In this way we came acquainted with the stories of the people who live, work and love in these rugged lands; the native’s culture, the Welsh tradition, the B&R (born and raised) and all those people who conformed this dreamer and rebel southern identity characterized by insurrection and dreams.

When we arrived in “Puerto Pirámides”, the sea had taken the blue to sky and as unraveling it into a thousand waves of foam. The landscape was offered to us with all its mystery and we were walking where the sea had been millions of years ago: marine fossils are everywhere giving testimony of them.

We went into the sea armed with fashionable orange lifejackets. In that moment, we were as children expecting for something marvelous to happen. We were participating in the first whale watching navigation of the season and our eyes were so open that they had started to hurt.

We almost did not blink; the more we enter into the sea the more anxious we were. The experience had also a special emotion; we knew that one of those whales who visit the peninsula periodically could be Alfonsina, the recent southern right whale that we had adopted.

So we saw them… far, far away. A tale, a fin, the backwaters, our tour guides told us that the encounter was close. The sightings were succeeding and it seemed as if our sea friends were trying very hard to catch our attention: one of them dived into the water doing stunts, the other let us watching its tale up in the water; a third was shooting a water jet into the sky.

The exclamations of joy and tenderness were immediate. We walked from side to side of the ship to appreciate as much as we could. Cameras and camcorders could not get all the present wonder and beauty. Nature was throwing a party and we were invited to celebrate!

A whale with its calf came too closed to our boat. Our tour guide explained us that they were a female whale with her child born one year before and the games they were playing were the last before they got apart: they had been together for a year and it was time for the calf to start its life on its own.

Perhaps, this powerful influence that whales have on us may not be another thing that seeing our own life’s values: love, family, freedom, natural connection being part of the unique and mysterious universe…

The truth is that whale watching is a unique experience that can connect us with essential emotions and feelings that teach us that life is holy and loving in all its expressions and struggling to keep it is our outmost aim that we have every day.

The Honey Moon is a fascinating and unrepeatable trip. My husband and I had the dream of knowing the Iguazú Waterfalls and this was the destination chosen for our Honey Moon.

The Iguazú Waterfalls are a unique show of the nature, considered as one of the greatest wonders of the World because of its indescribable natural beauty, a mix of impressive views, sounds and emotion. At the moment as we arrived, we were astonished by the big rivers, the red land and the virgin forest covered by big trees, with extraordinary flora and fauna.

The first day of our stay, holding hands, we started our path along the gateways of the Iguazú National Park. The mystery of life was exploding around us: the charming little monkeys were jumping from branch to branch, noisy and restless, surprising everyone with its tricks. The birds filled the air with its melodious trills. After that, we were surprised by the funny parade of a family of coatis who awaked the funniest smiles while they were passing by.

At the end of the gateway, a spectacular view of the Devil’s Throat was waiting for us. The sweeping violence with which the water falls from these huge natural waterfalls is an overpowering spectacle. The vapor made by the fall of the water, produce a permanent fog, in which the sun rays formed lots of rainbows of an unsurpassed beauty.

In the evening we returned to the park to walk the runways in the light of the moon. The magic adventure of sharing this unique feeling of being in idyllic places was, no doubt, a delightful experience that left etched in our memories as one of the most exciting moments of our life together, as a couple.

The following day, we venture on a journey through the jungle for bird-watching. Just in front of our eyes, an impressive sight showed up: the imposing presence of vegetation strata overlapping from the floor to the high tops of the trees, the profusion of vines of all kinds and size, providing the best ambience for the settlement of several multicolor birds.

The bird-watching excursions are done early in the morning, time of the day in which the birds go out looking for food. The spectacle presented to us by the early hours of the day, with sunlight streaming through the foliage bathed in dew drops, is enhanced by the presence of the birds that begin their daily routines. Our senses, almost atrophied because of the urban life, were magically sharpened and was then, when we started to distinguish the beauty of a plumage, the melody of a song, the delicate grace of a flight…

Because of all these reasons, the Iguazú Waterfalls is one of the most amazing places in our country and an ideal destination to share a romantic moment. At every step, in every path, in every corner, you will find the magic, calling you to stop, to contemplate and even for one moment, to be part of this natural spectacle of life.

December in Argentina is quite hot, especially because only three days before Christmas, the summer begins.

I remember that in this time of the year, the routine was repeated, year after year, no doubt. The 24th, my sisters and I used to arrive early at my grandmother’s house to help her preparing everything for the big night. Few hours later my cousins arrived and we all waited quiet and anxious for the clock to give the 12 to go and get our presents under the Christmas tree, the one that I helped decorating, very exciting, some days before Christmas.

Of course, there were no big chimneys, no elk, or deer… not even big decorations; but what was always there, no doubt, was the whole family: adults, elderly and children. Everyone, together, gathered around a large table (that as the years passed it seemed to me that it was getting smaller, although it was always the same). I remember that everyone was happy, expectantly, as if that time of the year was special, something magic. As the time passed by, I realized that, maybe, that feeling with which adults expected Christmas, with which they prepared everything and with which they waited the family reunion, that excitement, was produced because every Christmas Eve reminded them the ones that they lived in their childhood, when Christmas is more a magic story than a Christian holiday. It is the shearing, the enjoying, the excitement, the laughs, the mourn, the meetings with old friends who live far away… it is that feeling of being together and discovering the good and valuable things we have in this life.

As a child, I used to get increasingly anxious with each passing minute and I was constantly watching the clock… the eleven o’clock, half past eleven, quarter to twelve, ten to twelve… it was almost the moment…. From there my eyes focused on the sky and, with my sisters and cousins, we looked for an old man in the dark, with a red costume and a big white beard, carrying a big red bag with cars, dolls, bicycles, balls and toys, coming from unimaginable places… But it always happened the same, in some distraction, Santa Clause landed who knows where his sleds, and left the presents under the Christmas tree, with name and surname so nobody confuse the packages. Everyone received gifts, adults and children… Even grandparents!

As an adult, I choose Buenos Aires to celebrate this holiday with my family, although now is smaller than 25 years ago. Visiting Buenos Aires before Christmas is having thousands of unimaginable ways of expressing the same feelings.

From late November and early December begins the preparations to make the city look like a huge Christmas tree, where the shops invite you to a fantasy and illusion trip, with their storefronts decorated, waiting for Christmas.

The streets are not far behind. It worth getting lost along the most important Avenues as Santa Fe, Callao, Corrientes or the 9th July Avenue itself, or around the small streets of traditional neighborhoods as San Telmo, Palermo, Belgrano, Recoleta, la Boca or the city center, where the colours of Santa Clause paint everything they touch.

Besides the Obelisk that decorated or not is the main Christmas tree of the city, hundreds of other trees are lighted every night, either by its owners themselves or by some institution which celebrates Christmas that way.

That’s why, even it isn’t exist the snow of New York, the elk of Montreal or the camels and kings of Middle East, this city gets unforgettable during this part of the year. Impossible to be ignored.

Buenos Aires allows us to dream again, as when we were kids. Where the possibility of crossing just around the corner the elusive Santa Claus was something that could certainly happened to us.